Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

then. Two groups of experienced marketers are implementing the plan. Oneis the board of directors, many of whose members are executives of majorfinancial corporations or their spouses. The other group has been recruitedfrom businesses that are using their association with the Ailey company fortheir own marketing purposes. For example, Healthsouth Corporation providesfree physical therapy to the dancers and benefits from the associationin marketing its chain of sports medicine clinics. Jaguar, the official car ofAlvin Ailey, has made a large donation in exchange for this designation andthe right to use Alvin Ailey in advertising and for access to the its mailinglist. With an audience that is almost half African American and 43 percentof which is between the ages of 19 and 39, Ailey is providing access to animportant market for its corporate partners and earning their enthusiasticsupport. 22EV A L U A T I O N A N D C O N T R O LTo deal with the many surprises that occur during the implementation of marketingplans, the marketing department continuously has to monitor and control marketingactivities. In spite of this need, many companies have inadequate control procedures.This conclusion was reached in a study of 75 companies of varying sizes in differentindustries. The main findings were these:■■■■Smaller companies do a poorer job of setting clear objectives and establishingsystems to measure performance.Less than half of the companies studied knew their individual products’ profitability.About one-third of the companies had no regular review procedures forspotting and deleting weak products.Almost half of the companies fail to compare their prices with those of the competition,to analyze their warehousing and distribution costs, to analyze thecauses of returned merchandise, to conduct formal evaluations of advertising effectiveness,and to review their sales force’s call reports.Many companies take four to eight weeks to develop control reports, which areoccasionally inaccurate.Table 6.6 lists four types of marketing control needed by companies: annual-plancontrol, profitability control, efficiency control, and strategic control.696part fiveManaging andDelivering MarketingProgramsANNUAL-PLAN CONTROLThe purpose of annual-plan control is to ensure that the company achieves the sales,profits, and other goals established in its annual plan. The heart of annual-plan controlis management by objectives. Four steps are involved (Figure 6-11). First, managementsets monthly or quarterly goals. Second, management monitors its performancein the marketplace. Third, management determines the causes of serious performancedeviations. Fourth, management takes corrective action to close the gaps betweengoals and performance.This control model applies to all levels of the organization. Top management setssales and profit goals for the year that are elaborated into specific goals for each lowerlevel of management. Each product manager is committed to attaining specified levelsof sales and costs; each regional and district sales manager and each sales representativeis also committed to specific goals. Each period, top management reviewsand interprets the results.Managers use five tools to check on plan performance: sales analysis, market-shareanalysis, marketing expense–to–sales analysis, financial analysis, and market-basedscorecard analysis.